Various home network standards are available for networking devices in the home sector.
A consortium of companies, particularly the companies in the computer industry, led by Microsoft, have started an initiative for specifying a piece of network control software based on the existing Internet protocol (IP). This network system has become known by the acronym UPnP (Universal Plug and Play). In this system, the specification is not made primarily for consumer electronic devices, but rather other devices may also be integrated in the network, particularly personal computers, white goods, household appliances such as refrigerators, microwave ovens, washing machines, or else heating controllers, lighting controllers, alarm systems, etc. The transmission system which is preferably used for implementing a UPnP network is based on the known Ethernet bus system. Many variants of this bus system have been standardized, so that in the home network sector it is possible to select the respective optimum variant.
In the home network sector, it is recommended that “star cabling” based on two-wire copper cable be used. By way of example, the standardized 100-Mbit/s variant called 100Base-TX can be used, which uses a “CAT/5 cable”, which can have a maximum length of 100 m. In the case of a star cabling, the cables are routed together to the individual network stations in a network connection switching unit, also called a “switch” or “hub”. Such a network connection switching unit is able to convey data packets between the individual subscriber stations. It thus has its own control logic and the software required for this purpose.
The UPnP network system contains a stipulation that new stations need to log on in the network and disconnected stations need to log off from the network. This is done using special messages, which will be discussed in more detail later.